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Sony a7 and Konica Hexanon AR glass.


dbaechli
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I have a bunch of Hexanon lenses. First one I bought was the very rare 35mm f2.0. By now I also have a 28mm 3.5, 40mm 1.8, 50mm 1.7 and soon the 135mm 2.5 should arrive. I really like the 35 so far. Got to shot the others on the a7 - I have only tried them so far on Fuji X cameras.

 

Sony a7 & 35mm f2.0:

 

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20141009_181907_0008-10.jpg

 

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20141009_182910_0019-20.jpg

 

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20141009_183825_0036-37.jpg

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Hexanon glas rules! Best bang for the buck!

 

True. It took me some time before I made up my mind and got that 35mm f2.0. Now I am waiting for a parcel with a 135mm f2.5 and the 85mm f1.8 is on my wishlist. I think the latter one would make a nice portrait lens on the a7 ,-)

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These shots all are taken at f2.0 - so if you hit the focus point, at least the 35 f2.0 seems pretty sharp to me. Also the.. 28 f3.5 is quite good (although f3.5 isn't really a very "open" f-stop).. It is true, though, when I look at the 50mm 1.7 - I think I do have a bad copy (10 bucks at the flea market). It is very soft open..

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  • 1 month later...

http://konicalover.tumblr.com:>

 

No but seriously, I try to only use Konica MF lenses.. I miss the 21mm though.. But for portraits the 85mm 1.8 is pretty amazing.. The 135mm F 2.5 too.. It's so sharp.. And they are so stable.. Like they can't break.. 

 

I so regret that I can't buy a Sony A7-II because I bought a A7.. Can't imagine Konica lenses and IS ... Argh I'm going crazy over the Sony A7II 

 

:)

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  • 1 month later...

.. It is true, though, when I look at the 50mm 1.7 - I think I do have a bad copy (10 bucks at the flea market). It is very soft open..

 

I have not used my Hexanons on Sony yet (lack of Sony body at the moment), but for the 50mm f1.4 and 50mm f1.7 I have the impression that full open you get sharp images, however it only comes out in post processing when you remove the Hexanon glow (I understood some kind of chromatic abberation which is also responsible for the lovely bokeh). There is not a lot of difference between the f1.4 and the f1.7 I find, both are lovely.

I quite like my 100 f2.8 which is a lot cheaper then the 85 f1.8 and should be close in usage. I do love my 135mm f3.2.

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Hello I'm using Hexanon AR 40mm f1.8/ 135mn F 2.5 / 200mn F4 and 28mn F3.5 on a NEX 5R and it's really amasing !!!the 200 mn F 4 could be better not enough definition and the 28 mn is not easy to do the focus (I would like the Hexanon AR UC 28mn...not availlable) but for the 40 and the 135 it's just pleasue..............

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Funny thing about the 35mm f/2.0.   I purchased the Konica TC with the Hexanar AR 35MM F/2.0 as a gift for my father.   The TC was Konica's entry level camera with absolutely no bells or whistles.  My father stopped using the camera long ago, but he knew that I still shot film and asked me if I wanted the camera.   I took it, basically to be polite and never gave the attached lens a thought.   It was only with the advent of the A7 series of cameras that it occured to me that it just might be a good lens.   I have a few M-Hexanons and they are very good.   Well, the 35mm turns out to be a great lens on the A7.

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Hesanon glas...

 

Hexanon

 

... Hexanar AR 35MM F/2.0 ..

Hexar are the followers of Hexanon, but not all are at the Hexanon level.

 

Anyway: I have a Sony A7s now and used the 50mm f1.4 and 100mm f2.8 in my first tests; it seems that any previous problems I had with the f1.4 might have come from the adapter with corrective lens I was using on my other system. Further testing required, but I'm convinced they are great.

 

I have been looking in the past at the next lenses:

21mm f2.8 =>  this one goes about 1000EUR, so next:

28mm f1.8 =>  this one goes about 850EUR (I got the 24mm f2.8 as a wide angle, still expensive but a lot less). I spent 15€ on two (lesser) 28mm lenses afterwards.

85mm f1.8 => goes about 200EUR, looks interesting and I know where to get it, but the 200€ will go to a 90mm Macro (not Konica), which is closer to my usage, the 100mm f2.8 is close enough.

35mm f2 => did not once come across it (did find the f2.8), I guess my 40mm f1.8 is close, so I would more go for a Samyang 35mm f1.4 (not Konica), if I go for a 35mm.

 

Will try to post some pictures soon (busy on other project).

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Vince_Lux: I have two 35/2 by now ,-) I need to shot some more with all of them, though. Looking at your 50/1.7 shot I might retry that one, for sure. But I paid 10 bucks for it so, maybe it's really crappy.. The 21 and 28 I didn't come across or didn't look for it (except the 28/3.5). I just looked at some more shots I took with the 28/3.5 and it's pretty amazing on the Fuji X-E1. Will have to mount it on the Sony a7. So many tools - so little time.. Sigh.

 

This is an X-E1 + 28/3.5 shot, just to give an idea. Nice close focus, pretty bokeh:

 

20141010_215511_0002-2.jpg

 

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20141010_215525_0003-3.jpg

Ah, a second one - so you see the beautiful Voigtländer on the Olympus E-PL7 ,-)

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  • 1 month later...

I would be interested in hearing of the experience other Sony A7 users are having with vignetting/light fall-off using legacy lenses on the Sony A7.

 

I am an old Konica Hexanon AR user from film days and have been comparing my Konica film images with Sony A7 digital results using the actual same lenses (with adapter obviously).   I am finding quite noticable light fall-off in all the digital images whereas there was absolutely none on film.   Lenses I have tried so far are my 50mm 1.8, 40mm 1.8 and 28mm 3.5, all set at f11.   The wider the lens the worse the light fall-off.   In fact, whereas the 28mm was possibly my favourite lens of old exhibiting no light fall-off, the fall-off using it on the Sony A7 is extremely disappointing.   Image sharpness produced by the Hexanons is, on the other hand, superb right across the digital images with no aberration even with challenging contrast (eg tree twigs against sky) in the corners.

 

The problem seems to be the way the Sony FF sensor deals with light hitting it at an angle, ie away from the sensor centre.   I can largely eliminate the vignetting I am getting by post processing in DxO Pro 10, manually of course as DxO don't cover legacy glass, and auto lens corrections are therefore not available.   I may set up a series of presets to match the Hexanons.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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  • 1 month later...

Vince_Lux: I have two 35/2 by now ,-) I need to shot some more with all of them, though. Looking at your 50/1.7 shot I might retry that one, for sure. But I paid 10 bucks for it so, maybe it's really crappy.. The 21 and 28 I didn't come across or didn't look for it (except the 28/3.5). I just looked at some more shots I took with the 28/3.5 and it's pretty amazing on the Fuji X-E1. Will have to mount it on the Sony a7. So many tools - so little time.. Sigh.

 

This is an X-E1 + 28/3.5 shot, just to give an idea. Nice close focus, pretty bokeh:

 

Ah, a second one - so you see the beautiful Voigtländer on the Olympus E-PL7 ,-)

 

I like the pictures, keep up the good work. I will admit that the 28/3.5 has surprised me, I did not expect a lot from it, but it does give nice results from my first usage. However I have been more busy with other lenses when I found the time.

 

I did crack for that 85mm f1.8 (I was in the shop and asked to see it, it looked unused, then bid 20€ lower and they accepted) and even if I did not like the way it handled, I did like the results it gave. The shop has a reasonably priced 50mm f1.4 for the moment, but since I have the 1.4 and 1.7 already I will put my money elsewhere.

 

On the 35mm f2 I did see one go in an e-bay auction at a price close to what I was willing to give, but since it closed late in the evening and the bid was high already I went to bed instead.

 

 

I would be interested in hearing of the experience other Sony A7 users are having with vignetting/light fall-off using legacy lenses on the Sony A7.

 

I think this might indicate a similar issue then users of Ultra wide Leica lenses have, the issue is the angle the light hits the sensor (film does not have that issue).

My experience with film is limited, I only started that recently and the A7S has this problem less then the other A7 series machines, so I can not do relevant tests I fear.

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  • 5 months later...

I have an Hexanon AR 50mm 1.7 lens and Sony a7ii. Purchased an Fotasty K/R-A7ii adaptor which must be set in Manuel or Aperture mode. When I set it in manuel or aperture the f stop does not appear on the lcd or evf as I turn the aperture dial. Is this correct?

 

Thanks,

Barry

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  • 6 months later...

Hello Guys.

want to share my hexanon lens pic for this forum  :P

this is my collection.

21 f2.8

40 f1.8

85 f1.8

 

KqABa82.jpg

 

 

I like the adapter is short enough compare to other slr lens

 

I found this store in japan have many hexanon lens

fotoborse.com

I found 21 f2.8 there

 

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